Generations: Age, Ancestry, and Memory in the English Reformations

by Alexandra Walsham

Generations injects fresh energy into tired debates about England's plural and protracted Reformations by adopting the fertile concept of generation as its analytical framework. It demonstrates that the tumultuous religious developments that stretched across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries not merely transformed the generations that experienced them, but were also forged and created by them. The book investigates how age and ancestry were implicated in the theological and cultural upheavals of the era and how these, in turn, reconfigured the relationship between memory, history, and time. It explores the manifold ways in which the Reformations shaped the horizontal relationships that early modern people formed with their siblings, kin, and peers, as well as the vertical ones that tied them to their dead ancestors and their future heirs. Generations highlights the vital part that families bound by blood and by faith played in shaping these events, as well as in mediating
our knowledge of the religious past and in the making of its archive. Drawing on a rich array of evidence, it provides poignant glimpses into how people navigated the profound challenges that the English Reformations posed in everyday life.

566 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2023

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I get worried that there’s nothing left to say about the Early Modern period and I’ve gotten myself into the wrong special interest. This book reminded me how much information we have that we haven’t applied yet. The prose was compelling and the research was thorough! It’s gonna be a great source for the thesis.

[Paul Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about the history of the long English reformation seen through the eyes of families and individuals and how this changes across generations. Includes a very wide collection of sources and includes perspectives from both Protestant and Catholics. It is quite a dense read at times but is well worth the effort.